Motor vehicles today have lighting systems that include one or more interior and exterior lights that are used for a variety of purposes. Generally, the interior lights are designed to provide enough light to ensure that the operator of the motor vehicle can see all of the controls needed to operate the motor vehicle. While the exterior lights are designed to ensure that the operator of the motor vehicle can operate the motor vehicle at night, or in other reduced visibility environments such as fog. In general, these lighting systems are designed to utilize an approximately 12V power supply for powering both the interior and exterior lights. Currently, many motor vehicle lighting systems include an ambient light sensor that is used to automatically turn on or off the exterior vehicle lights in response to the detected ambient light being above or below a threshold value. In addition, current lighting systems for operating interior lights on a motor vehicle may allow the operator to manually adjust the intensity or brightness of one or more of the interior lights.
In many cases, the amount of light required by a user to safely operate the motor vehicle may be less than the amount of light provided by the interior and/or exterior lights of the lighting systems while in an On state. Accordingly, currently available motor vehicle lighting systems waste energy in the form of light produced by both the interior and exterior lights in excess of the light needed by the operator of the motor vehicle.